Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-02-26
COMMENTS ON CURRENT TOPICS.
Our Troublcsome surplus - Something
About immigration.

our lroubte>ome surplus - something
About immigration.
There probably never was a nation in his
tory that has had n financial embarrassment
similar to that which is now disquieting ttis
treasury thGt we don't know what to do with
it. The receipts are SO much larger than the
outgoes that gold, silver and greenbacks are
being locked up and are unemployed, a stlte
of things that really embarrasses trade, which
requires for its transactions the full volume
of our circulating medium But the sitting
congress will undoubtedly DISPOSE of the sur
plus, not by reducing the tariff or abolishing
the internal revenues, but by making ex-
penditureS for sea coast and lake defenses, in
providing a navy and in increasing tho pen
sion fund This last item has swollen to ap-
palling figures. 1t is estimated that tho
money paid out for pensions will in time
nearly equal the cost of our civil war, which
was the most exhaustive one known to his
tory. We have already appropriated over
Sl,Hc,oT,orD i'll extra payments TO those who
entered our military service-a sum sufficient
y
defenses, improved our harbors and water
ways and re-tstahliShed our merchant ma
rine, that our flag would again he seen in
every important port on the globe. But in
stead of this outlay for national purposes We
have spent il i'll gratuities to old soldiers and
sailors and their families that Were not asked
for. Still these vast sums have been spent
among the poor class, and doubtless have
helped the retail business of the country.
With all our extravaganza we have more
money in the treasury than at present we
know what 10 do with, for the reason, no
doubt, that unlike Europe, we have no gigan-
tic armies and navies to maintain
Emigration in the past has moved on iso-
thermal lines. That il, when human beings
in any part of the world wish to change their
place of living, they go westerly and in
stinctively choose regions that reproduce the
climate of their old homes Hence the Nor
wegan finds his way to Minnesota: so does
the family from Maine. The New Englander
keeps on due west. The German emigrates
to Missouri or Kansas, the Italian TO Brazil.
1t is rare that a northern people will seek .
southern climate or vice versa. When the
Dutch settled on New York bay they chose
Communipaw as their home, because IL was
low and sandy: i'll other words. it reproduced
the physical charaC teristics of Holland 1t
was, of course, the least desirable OF any To-
cality or the now noble harbor of the metrop-
oils. All forIne.' emigrations were due west;
but a change has come, and the iron and
coal fields of the central zone Of our southern
states are new centers of attraction for tens
of thousands of northern families A new
Pennsylvania is growing up in northern
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, in Ten
nessee, North Carolina and southwestern
Virginia The change is so marvellous to
be almost incredible. In a region heretofore
given over TO cotton growing, there, are now
mills iron foundries, as well as the most
diversified industries a reproduction, in
short, of the workshops of New Eggland and
the middle states. The old south has passed
away forever, and a new south. which, in its
industrial occupations is indistinguishabls
from the north, has taken its place.
p. G. C.